Days before the Golden Globes, we speak to best actor nominee Adrien Brody on how his own family history parallels his character’s story in the epic historical drama The Brutalist
“Oh, I am elated,” says Adrien Brody during a Zoom call from his home in New York about being nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in the epic historical drama The Brutalist. The film is a three-hour-plus immigration drama about a Hungarian Jew who seeks to create a new life in post-world-war II’s United States. It even has a built-in intermission. “I'm really, really grateful to receive this recognition and for the work to be singled out and brought into the conversation,” Brody continues. “It provides such a platform for us in order to help the world see our little film that is quite big scale, but it is a little movie and that nomination helps us immensely and it supports the all the sacrifice of ours for many years to ultimately create a work like this and thus, it makes me very happy.”
It has been more than 22 years since Adrien Brody’s role in The Pianist (2002) earned him his first Golden Globe nomination and led to him to win his first Oscar-statue, making him the youngest to take home Best Actor at age 29. Now, his performance in The Brutalist will very likely lead to his second Oscar-nomination. “I've been yearning to find a character and a project of this complexity for many, many years and it just means a lot to me,” says the 51-year-old actor, who has recently wrapped up a run of The Fear of 13 at London’s Donmar Warehouse. “And I was home when I learned of the nomination. I was finally home. I'd been doing a play, doing eight shows a week in London for the past three months and finally just got home and it was just lovely, lovely news.”